Job’s Reply to Bildad, 1-4
26:1 Then Job replied:
26:2 “How you have helped the powerless!
How you have saved the person who has no strength!
26:3 How you have advised the one without wisdom,
and abundantly revealed your insight!
26:4 To whom did you utter these words?
And whose spirit has come forth from your mouth?
A Better Description of God’s Greatness, 5-14
Anderson:
‘This is one of the most fascinating cosmological passages in the entire Bible. More than a dozen elements are listed: earth, water, cloud, sky, etc., sometimes under the names they had in the old myths, such as Yam (sea), Rahab, and especially the fleeing serpent.’
26:5 “The dead tremble—
those beneath the waters
and all that live in them.
26:6 The underworld is naked before God;
the place of destruction lies uncovered.
26:7 He spreads out the northern skies over empty space;
he suspends the earth on nothing.
Does this verse anticipate modern science by teaching that the earth hangs suspended in space? Ramm (Christian View) comments that, given that the Sun and the Moon seem to be rather obvious examles of floating spheres, it is not impossible that ancient people concluded the same about the earth. If so, this verse is not a prediction of modern science, but rather a reflection of ancient beliefs (which happened, in this case, to be true).
JFB find here a:
‘Hint of the true theory of the earth. Its suspension in empty space is stated in the second clause.’
Barnes:
‘There is no certain evidence here that Job was acquainted with the globular form of the earth, and with its diurnal and annual revolutions. But it is clear that he regarded it as not resting on any foundation or support; as lying on the vacant air, and kept there by the power of God.’
Lange: This expression denotes:
‘the endless empty space in which the earth (which according to ver. 10 is conceived of as a flat disk, rather than as a ball). together with the overarching northern heavens, hangs freely.’
Keil & Delitzsch:
‘We are…not justified in inferring from Job’s expression the laws of the mechanism of the heavens, which were unknown to the ancients, especially the law of attraction or gravitation.’
The Apologetics Study Bible:
‘Some scholars suggest that Job wrote better than he knew, for his observation approached the knowledge that the earth is suspended in space supported only by gravitational forces.’
Alden (NAC):
‘Job’s assertion that the earth hangs on nothing is amazingly accurate and certainly counters the charge that the Bible’s writers held that the earth stood on something else.’
Wiersbe find ‘remarkable scientific accuracy’ in this verse.
Walton (IVPBBC):
‘In Babylonian literature, Shamash is praised as the one who suspends from the heavens the circle of the lands. This was part of ancient perception of the cosmos rather than a covert allusion to modern scientific understanding.’
Walton (NIVAC):
‘The cosmic geography expressed in 26:7 has attracted considerable attention, since some have asserted that it reflects some modern, scientific models that conceive of the earth suspended in space. Careful attention, however, shows this not to be the case.’